An Empty Seat at the Dinner Table
by Red Witch Studios
Summary: That place at the table, that place in my heart, will always be empty.


Disclaimer: I do not own Elfen Lied. That right belongs exclusively to one Lynn Okamoto.

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><p>There's a bowl set down at the end of the table, placed neatly beside the resting chopsticks. There are four other spots at the table set up just like that, where the four people who make up my mismatched family will sit. Together we will sit and talk, laugh, and enjoy the soba noodles that make a hot summer day all the more bearable. I can already envision it in my head:<p>

Kouta, Mayu and I will eat like adults, steady and quiet. Nana, of course, will loudly slurp down everything and giggle in awe of how delicious each bite of food is. Mayu will nervously laugh and insist she not eat it too fast, as she did with the ice cream just the other day, to which Nana will shrug the advice off. Kouta and I, we'll just laugh nervously as well and continue with our meal, just like a Mama and a Papa would.

But . . . something will be missing. The girls' laughter will lack a certain something, another happy voice to give theirs more volume. The voice that usually comes from the end of the table, the seat nearest to the window, will be alarmingly silent.

"Yuka, you know you just put out an extra bowl?"

My eyes glance up to see Kouta. He's sitting in the chair next to the window, enjoying the warm summer air and the buzzing of the noisy cicadas. There's a smile on his face, but I'm not stupid; there's something else there. There's something in his eyes he's trying to hide . . . a sadness. He was the last one to see her before she went away.

"...I thought it would be nice. Having her here..." I answer, smiling back. My eyes fall back to the place I've just set, and I hope to God my eyes aren't showing my own feelings. Kouta can be dense at times, but whenever a girl is upset, he always seems to know. I'm ashamed it took me so long to realize that. Boys with little sisters are always better tuned into the feelings of girls.

"Yeah..." Oh Kouta, he just smiles, knowing how I feel without me saying a thing.

I'm still sitting in the dining room when Kouta stands up and leaves to find the girls. Nana and Mayu should be finished cooking by now; I can already smell the sausage Nana's managed to keep from burning. She's gotten so good at cooking lately from watching me. I can only hope she doesn't become so good at cooking that she cooks far too much and we run out of groceries faster than normal.

Again I glance at that empty seat, and all at once it becomes clear how much I'm going to miss, how much all of us are going to miss out on. Nyuu won't be here anymore. Kouta never explained what happened that night, but even I know she's gone. The look on his face that night said just as much. His face that night told me plainly and clearly that I will never see my "daughter" again. I will never get to teach Nyuu how to cook; I will never teach her how to talk properly; I will never hear her say my name with that big smile she usually has when she says Kouta's name; I will never get to hold her again; and worst of all, I will never wake up to hear an excited "Nyu!" mixed in with Mayu and Nana's girlish chatter or with Wanta's happy barking. Instead, there will be an eerie silence about the house, a silence that will leave my ears ringing no matter how loudly I talk, scream, or cry.

Tears come close to falling from my eyes, but for the good of the others, who I can hear coming up the hall, I refrain. Mothers don't cry, especially not in front of their children. Mothers don't cry . . . yet my heart is begging me to do just that. Cry, cry in the hopes that tenderhearted girl we call Nyuu will hear and come running to see what's the matter. Cry so she will be concerned and try to hold me to make my tears stop. Cry so she can come back and see how much we . . . no, how much_ I_ love her, even if the rest of the world doesn't. Even if the rest of the world wants to take her and hide her away just because there are two bones growing out of her head, I will love her. A mother loves all her daughters, even if she doesn't say so.

My "daughter" will never come back. Though I have two more, that place at the table, that place in my heart, will always be empty.

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><p>AN: As a fan of both Lucy AND Yuka, the amount of Yuka bashing just for the sake of Kouta/Lucy as a pairing has always baffled me. "Yuka gets in the way!" "She's so jealous and clingy!" Those types of reasons for hating her just bother me. Lucy gets more in the way of Kouta/Lucy than Yuka does, what with her having slaughtered his family, thus ruining any relationship they might have with her instead of Nyuu. By the way, guys, Lucy is 100x more jealous and clingy than Yuka, if you'll recall. Yuka may get upset at Kouta for the pervy things that happen when he's in the room (even if they aren't his fault), but at least she wouldn't murder another girl out of jealousy.

Instead of bashing Yuka because of the pairing, look at the good things she does. Look at how kind she is toward the girls who are her pseudo-daughters. Look at how she runs the house and is a stable character for the others to cling to when their problems bring them down. Don't see a conniving bitch who would sell anyone else out just to have Kouta for herself.


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